“Motown: The Musical” was almost as good as Motown: The Dyfunctional Family Reunion last night as the living principals of the greatest record company in history gathered one more time–and maybe one last time. For the Broadway premiere of Berry Gordy’s musical–already a hit with a $16 million advance and lines around the block–last night’s audience at Lunt Fontanne Theater got more than we ever could have bargained for. True, Sting and Bono were each there with their respective wives, so that was very cool. And Clive Davis had an aisle seat up front, and there were plenty of luminaries from the record business including Doug Morris, L.A. Reid, and Sylvia Rhone.

But the real story was Motown. Stevie Wonder flew in from Las Vegas after playing at Quincy Jones and Michael Caine’s birthday party. Smokey Robinson was in from L.A. Gladys Knight had been recording a new album. Mary Wilson has been a rehearsing a new act for Las Vegas. And then there was the unexpected: Diana Ross, with several of her kids. They were all there to see themselves, and to see each other, and maybe talk to each other, and maybe not.

But when the show was done and the curtain calls came, Ross was first on stage after Berry Gordy, followed by Smokey, then Mary and Gladys followed. Last up was Stevie who literally rolled up onto the stage and was helped to the center. It was a magic moment. In the audience were plenty of people who also made Motown great including Valerie Simpson, who wrote four of the songs in the show with her late husband Nick Ashford; Eddie Holland and Lamont Dozier, who wrote so many hits for the Supremes and the Four Tops with Eddie’s brother Brian; and Claudette Robinson, Smokey’s first wife, one of the original Miracles (who by the way looks amazing).

Also at “Motown”: Jane Fonda and Richard Perry, as well as Gayle King, Jesse Jackson, Hoda and Kathie Lee, David Geffen, Motown music publisher Marty Bandier, Linda Moran of the Songwriters Hall of Fame (they’re honoring Gordy on June 13th), Allen and Debbie Grubman, Mel Lewinter, Tom Corson, Les Moonves and Julie Chen, and Spike Lee in a kind of red-orange jumpsuit and hat, loving every minute.

And no, Mary and Diana still do not talk. Diana didn’t look too happy to see Gordy flanked by Wilson and Knight, but it was truce time. Diana, Smokey, Stevie, and Gordy all sat in a clump in the orchestra. At intermission, while everyone was busy meeting and greeting, Smokey sat in his seat with his wife, and cried. There were tears in his eyes. The show is as much about him as anyone else. And it’s full of his music, from the songs he wrote for himself and the Miracles to Mary Wells and of course the Temptations. Smokey wrote “My Guy” and “My Girl,” two staples of pop history.

I did ask Smokey, whom I’ve known a long time, how did he decide which group got which song. Like “My Guy” went to the Tempts: “I just wanted to write asong for Eddie Kendricks and David Ruffin,” he said. “It was that simple. I almost didn’t write it.” Of all the in house Motown songs, apart from Ashford and Simpson’s “Ain’t No Mountain High Enough,” “My Girl” is the jewel in the Motown song catalog.

Of course this audience loved the show, cheered the “Jackson 5” wildly, warmed to Jackie Wilson (who wasn’t on Motown) and thrilled to Rick James. The show is not historically accurate, and no one cares. “It’s Broadway,” Berry Gordy’s brother said to me. License is taken. It’s okay. The music, sets, performers, choreography far outweigh veracity. If anyone wants to know what really happened, you can read Gerri Hirshey’s definitive book, “Nowhere to Run” and Peter Guralnick’s “Sweet Soul Music.” Otherwise, “Motown: The Musical” is for dancing and singing along, and coming out of the theater with a big grin.

Justin Bieber, idiot teen idol, paid a visit to the Anne Frank House in Amsterdam yesterday before a show. The Anne Frank House has a Facebook page, naturally, so they posed a notice of Bieber’s visit.

“Yesterday night Justin Bieber visited the Anne Frank House, together with his friends and guards. Fans were waiting outside to see a glimpse of him. He stayed more than an hour in the museum. In our guestbook he wrote: “Truly inspiring to be able to come here. Anne was a great girl. Hopefully she would have been a belieber.”
Tonight Bieber will give a concert in Arnhem in the Netherlands.

By the way, he wore a hoodie.

It’s hard to imagine this person exists, is worth $100 million, and is a role model for teens around the world.

We can only wait for his visit to Dachau.

https://www.facebook.com/annefrankhouse

UPDATE WEDNESDAY: 111 million views “Gentleman” and I have no freaking idea why.

UPDATE TUESDAY 10:25 AM: Approaching 95 million views.

UPDATE MONDAY 2:38PM: 68 million views. Yowza.

UPDATE SUNDAY 10AM: 22 million views in 36 hours. And counting…

North Korea is threatening nuclear war and this may be why: Psy, the Elvis Presley-Michael Jackson of South Korea, just keeps getting more and more crazy popular. His new video, “Gentleman,” was posted to YouTube on Saturday. In 24 hours, give or take the international timeline, the video has garnered almost 11 million views. On Saturday in Seoul, Psy gave a stadium concert for 50,000 insane fans and live streamed it to YouTube where an undetermined gazillion more fans watched him around the world. You can see it here.

I have no idea what he’s saying, although Psy does speak perfect English. The concert was in Korean, however. Missiles are being aimed right now by Kim Jong Un since both “Gentleman” and “Gangnam Style” are incredibly annoying, mean nothing, and signify the end of the world. Psy is being managed in the US by Scooter Braun, the man who’s given us Justin Bieber and “Call Me Maybe.” (He is not on the Kennedy Center Honors list this year.)

Psy, by the way, is 35 years old and the son of a successful Korean businessman. His real name is Park Jae-Sang.  The DI Corporation, which makes semi-conductors, is a $100 million business according to reports.

Gentleman:

Today–Sunday, April 14, 2013– approximately would have been the 50th anniversary of Elaine’s. Pete Khoury reminded me of this when I ran into him on Friday night at Bar Centrale, owned by Elaine’s old pal Joe Allen. Bar Centrale is above Joe Allen’s on West 46th St. and it’s become in the last couple of years, a kind of Elaine’s, a smaller version, but a place where you can go late and know you’re going to run into some interesting people before the night ends.

But basically, since Elaine died on December 3, 2010 and the restaurant was shuttered on May 26, 2011, there has been no place to go at all. The old crowd drifts around. Neary’s has been very nice to anyone who stops in, and at Elio’s– run by a former Elaine’s waiter–they know we are the survivors. But Elaine would be so angry that we were there, or anywhere. “Where ya been?” is how 90% of all conversations began, even if it was just a week or a few days, or Tuesday since last Thursday. “Whaddaya mean? I was just here, Elaine,” I would plead.

Five years ago, on the Tuesday before the Sunday, Elaine said, “It’s the 45th anniversary this Sunday.” Pete Khoury and I looked at her a little surprised. She said, “Don’t do anything.” She was afraid some people wouldn’t find out in time, miss whatever event we planned, and be mad. She was right, because that’s what happened with a couple of friends.

But the place was jammed on that Sunday. Woody Allen came with his wife Soon Yi and one of their little girls. He arrived punctually at the stroke of eight, and stayed for quite a while. Elaine was beaming. We dressed the place up with balloons. Every table was taken. The old old timers met the new old timers. There were lots of toasts and Father Pete Colapietro sang. Jessica Burstein took pictures. We didn’t quite get it that the end was near. I know we thought 50 would be easy after that. So don’t take anything for granted.

You know, we do miss having a place to go at 11 o’clock at night. In the new Broadway play “Lucky Guy” there’s a scene set in Elaine’s, one with which I am quite familiar. Back around 1993-96 there was a surge at that hour. Mike McAlary, everyone from the papers, lots of police, some mob, a more colorful crowd you could not find anywhere else. It was a resurgence. There were no websites, and even if there were, Elaine had no idea what we were talking about. (Neither did we, really.) It was all about getting the papers after midnight, reading the papers, someone bringing in the Times front page right after it closed, checking bylines.

And it was all about Elaine Kaufman. Kids, we were not there just because the place was open late. We were there to brag and gossip and make some noise, and make sure Elaine knew how well everyone was going and what was going on. We were there to see her, and you waited — you waited– for her to get up from her chair at one table and saunter over to yours, plop down, and give your group ten, twenty minutes. The best thing was if she told Gianni to bring her some food at your table! Oh, fantastic, Elaine is going to eat with us. Now you know, she thinks we’re smart, she’s going to stay and talk and listen and nod and wave her arm from the elbow like the Pope.

Happy anniversary Elaine. I know you’re with Mr. Steinbrenner. The Yankees lost tonight, I’m sorry. But when the game was going badly. it always meant we were able to leave the Stadium early, drive down and eat dinner with you and watch the last inning on the TV in the bar. And the minute it was over, the tube was shut off, screen black, we’re not watching anything else. “Whaddaya gonna do?” Elaine would say, and a new topic of conversation would swallow the table whole.

We won’t know for another couple of weeks. But it does seem like James Toback‘s documentary, “Seduced and Abandoned,” could be the hot ticket in Cannes this year. Of course, the doc, which Toback filmed at Cannes last year with Alec Baldwin, is about, of course, Cannes. Toback and Baldwin spent the two weeks of the festival interviewing everyone they could nail down. They even got some people who weren’t there. But their crew was everywhere, and the duo managed even to snare Roman Polanski. The only person they may not have gotten was Harvey Weinstein. Toback did do a little filming around the festival as well with Neve Campbell. He also got Bernardo Bertolucci and Francis Ford Coppola. There will be footage from various events including amFAR’s ridiculous annual dinner and Vanity Fair’s famous star studded bi annual party at the Hotel du Cap. We may also see the crew being denied entry into certain places, and that’s always fun, too. There hasn’t been a good movie about Cannes since Henry Jaglom’s “Festival in Cannes” more than a dozen years ago. PS Sources say the doc may have a distributor before the festival even starts.

PS I first reported the existence of “Seduced and Abandoned” back on September 12, 2011– exclusively. http://www.showbiz411.com/2011/09/14/alec-baldwin-and-james-toback-planning-secret-film